Category Archives: Economics

The giant TVs are silent, the neon lights dark and the bars of Tokyo half-empty. Two weeks after Japan’s deadly earthquake, the city that once never slept is learning to live with a new era of frugality. Many public escalators … Continue reading →

A top Japanese official urged residents of the nation’s capital not to hoard bottled water Wednesday after Tokyo’s government found that radioactive material in tap water had exceeded the limit considered safe for infants. “We have to consider Miyagi and … Continue reading →

The tsunami devastated the coast of Japan. Buildings swayed in Tokyo, but none fell, thanks to preventative measures in the form of building codes enforced by –ready for it?– government regulation. Got that, GOP? Government regulation. Japan’s already stringent building … Continue reading →

Paul Krugman: The Congressional Budget Office expects Social Security outlays as a percentage of G.D.P. to rise 30 percent over the next quarter-century, as the population ages, but it expects a near doubling of the share of G.D.P. spent on … Continue reading →

The mighty magnitude 8.9 earthquake is the 7th most powerful tremor in world history (Figure 1), and the planet’s second top-ten earthquake in the past two years. The world’s 8th largest earthquake, a magnitude 8.8 event, hit Chile on February 27, … Continue reading →